Carbonated beverages are commonly provided to consumers in bottles. To dispense liquid from a carbonated beverage bottle, a consumer typically unscrews a bottle top and pours the drink into a drinking container. To re-seal the carbonated beverage container, the consumer reattaches the bottle top. A common problem with this type of sealing apparatus is that after a first use, the carbonated beverage steadily loses carbonation and goes “flat”. There exists a need for a bottle top dispensing means that easily dispenses carbonated beverages into a drinking container yet preserves the carbonation in the portion of the carbonated beverage remaining in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,932 to Nagy discloses a bottle siphon and dispenser for carbonated beverages that operates by placing pressure on a lever, which displaces an obstructor and allows a liquid to be dispensed. Nagy discloses that a portion of the obstructor passes through an opening in the dispenser body and makes contact with the lever. There is an imperfect seal in the dispensing chamber between the obstructor and the dispenser body. Nagy attempts to reduce the problem of this imperfect seal by positioning an O-ring around the obstructor in the area in which it passes through the dispenser body. This arrangement is relatively expensive to make and the imperfect seal is less than desirable, particularly since the obstructor moves up and down with respect to the dispenser body.
Other dispensers have attempted to improve the process of dispensing of carbonated beverages with limited success. Shortcomings of existing dispensers, such as disclosed by Nagy, include expensive and complicated construction, leaky valves, and the dispenser being too large such that it cannot fit on current carbonated beverage bottles when the bottles are stacked in standard shipping crates.
There is a need for a liquid dispenser for carbonated beverages which has a sealed dispensing chamber that is not penetrated by an obstructor, and where the obstructor is guided into making a proper seal by shaping the obstructor and the dispensing body in a suitable fashion, or by centering the obstructor within the dispenser body.
There further remains a need for a dispenser of relatively inexpensive construction and small in size such that it may be used on carbonated beverage bottles stacked in existing shipping crates.